ATK’s head coach Antonio Lopez Habas feels Spain’s defence is going through a transition following Barcelona stalwart Gerard Pique’s international retirement.

Spain are finding it difficult to zero on in a central defender who can be a perfect foil for captain Sergio Ramos. “If you ask me, my vote will be for Athletic Bilbao’s Inigo Martinez. He is a left footer and he should be ideal successor to Pique,” Habas told The Telegraph during an interaction.

“But it’s difficult to replace someone of Pique’s calibre. Ramos and Pique played during the best time of Spanish football’s history. You cannot get their replacements overnight,” he said.

Spain’s first major trophy since 1964 came in 2008 when it lifted the European Championships. Luis Aragones was the coach and Habas said he was the inspiration. “He was very successful with Atletico Madrid as well as the national team. I always looked up to him,” he said.

There is glut of Spanish coaches and players in Indian football now and according to Habas that’s because they are good technically. “There are 80,000 professional coaches in Spain. La Liga has only 20 coaches and around 10 are foreigners. So where do we go? Also Spanish coaches and players think football in a different way,” he said.

Talking about Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, Habas said both are good. “You cannot Frank Sinatra with Bob Marley. Can you? In Mourinho, I like one aspect and with Guardiola I like another. Both are great coaches,” he said.

Habas has played against Diego Maradona when the Argentine legend was in Barcelona, but refused to compare him with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. “To me Maradona is the best. But he is from another era. Those days a footballer used to get 10 seconds to react. Now you don’t get more than one second. In football, we can never compare.”

Habas said Ronaldinho is one player who was out of the world. “I was the coach of Valencia when Barcelona came at the Mestalla. Ronaldinho single-handedly destroyed us.”

Talking about ATK, he said his team is ready for the October 20 match against Kerala Blasters. “It’s new challenge for us. We are ready for Blasters.”

Joby Justin will not be there for the first three matches of ATK as he is serving a six-match ban for a spitting incident during his East Bengal days. “He has to learn from this situation. He is banned for three matches and he has to face it. He should not forget football earns him the bread,” he said.